Older drivers possible?

We may have to splinter the packs to rebalance.  Graphics_A is already pushing 90MB compressed and doesn't support older Geforce hardware.  We may have to reshuffle and add older nVidia hardware into Graphics_B.  It's possible we may have to create a Graphics_D (for outdated, unsupported hardware) for archival purposes to keep the other DriverPacks managable.  Otherwise, we're looking at 'exceptions overload'.

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Not all heroes wear capes, some wear Kevlar!

No, I slipstreamed all the DriverPacks as I'm doing this primarily to test my Up-to-Date Win2000 project.

The packs do in fact install a driver, the problem lies with nVidia's quality control on their omnibus drivers.

It seems that only the current and immediately previous generation graphics chipsets are extensively tested before releasing drivers.  So if you're using an older card that is nominally supported by the current driver series, you could be in for the odd nasty surprise.

These FX series cards are still being sold (cheap as chips) as it's all you really need if you are not a gamer.

[Opposite of Heaven], I'm still pissed off that they only ever released beta x64 drivers for nForce 3 series motherboards.

My support request to nVidia:

Question Reference #070622-000168
Summary:     Graphics Card HWID: PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0322&SUBSYS_290F107D&REV_A1\4&1AD7642&0&...
Product Level 1:     Graphics cards
Category Level 1:     Troubleshooting
Date Created:     06/22/2007 03:38 PM
Last Updated:     06/22/2007 03:38 PM
Status:     New
Choose OS:     Other Microsoft
Product Name:     FX5200
Driver Version:     93.71

Discussion Thread
Customer (Kurt Frank)    06/22/2007 03:38 PM
Graphics Card HWID:
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0322&SUBSYS_290F107D&REV_A1\4&1AD7642&0&0058

Under Windows 2000, video playback only works correctly with the Administrator account. On other accounts (even administrator class accounts) the video on my monitor is very dark and on my TV (using full screen mode) it displays in Black & RED !!

Under Windows XP x64, when the monitor is turned off after 20 minutes of inactivity, it intermittently (about 50% of the time) won't turn back on again. It seems the PC responds to keyboard input (the HDD light activates) but the only way to recover is by hard reset.

In both cases, reverting to the earlier 71.84 drivers (before 7xxx series compatibility was added) fixes the problems.

And their response:

Subject
Graphics Card HWID: PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0322&SUBSYS_290F107D&REV_A1\4&1AD7642&0&...

Discussion Thread
Response (MZ)    06/22/2007 04:42 PM
Hello Greg,

Thank you for contacting us here at NVIDIA Customer Care.

I understand from your email, that you are having issues while playing video files using GeForce FX 5200 graphics card.

In order to troubleshoot the issue you are facing, I suggest you to download and install 84.21 drivers for your graphics card. For clean installation of new drivers, Please uninstall the existing graphics drivers * (check the below mentioned steps) for GeForce FX 5200 graphics card. Download the Forceware 84.21 version of drivers from our website and disable onboard graphics adapter if any.

Please follow the steps mentioned below to download Forceware 84.21 versions for the GeForce FX 5200

Please visit the link below to download the driver:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_84.21.html

On the following page, click on the "Primary Download Site" URL to download the driver. To avoid download issues, if you are running any 3rd party download utilities, please disable them as they are known for occasionally causing errors with the downloads.

* Once you download the file, Please perform the below mentioned steps to uninstall the drivers currently installed on your PC before installing the 84.21 drivers,

1) Right click on the My Computer icon on the desktop.

2) Select properties.

3) In the next window select Hardware and then select Device Manager.

4) On the Device Manager, under Display Adapters double click on the graphics card option.

5) On the Graphics Controller Page, select driver and click on Uninstall to uninstall the Graphics Drivers.
NOTE- Before installing the new drivers please disable Anti Virus program if you are running on your computer.

Please get in touch with us, if you need further assistance.

Regards,
NVIDIA Customer Care.

So it seems they also recommend using older drivers, though I'll give them credit for a fast response (under 2 hours).  Of course it does make a lie of the standard troubleshooting step of ensuring you have the latest drivers.

As to the swearing rules, a surprisingly large number of websites won't even allow you to use Rhett Butler's most famous line.

Edit:

Further investigation reveals that the last working driver version is 78.01, it seems the glitch was introduced in the 8x.xx forceware series.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_78.01.html

Last edited by Kurt_Aust (2007-06-23 17:41:58)

Yes, I have already done so.  However, as they are going into the weekend now, the reply might take a bit longer this time.

nVidia's response to notification that the error was introduced in the 8x.xx forceware series:

Response (MZ)     06/25/2007 10:16 AM
Hi Kurt,

I apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused.

This not the normal behavior of the graphics card and In order to troubleshoot the issue you are facing I suggest you to please visit the given link and run the mentioned software in order to test the graphics card and please let me know the amount of power supply you are using on this computer.

http://www.sharewareconnection.com/vide … y-test.htm

Please note that if your system crashes and freezes while running this software, then the graphics  card has some problems. It might be defective. So, you might have to look for different graphics card for your system.

Looking forward for your response.

Regards,
NVIDIA Customer Care.

and my response to their response:

Customer (Kurt Frank)     06/26/2007 12:16 AM
Well, I ran the suggested software for 10 hours with no errors detected.

I find this not at all surprising as given the symptoms, a hardware error being the cause seems rather unlikely.

If the error was caused by hardware, one might reasonably expect that the error would be either consistent or intermittent.

However, an error that occurs consistently with non-Administrator accounts on certain driver versions, definitely points to software.

Sometimes one has to wonder if they actually read the support request or if they have a "trained monkey" problem solving flowchart that has to be followed.